Lost Lake to Wahtum Lake on the PCT

Kelley, Tamera and I drove up to Wahtum Lake Veteran's Day weekend. We wanted to hike about 25 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail that we had planned to do this summer but ended up not doing. The sun was bright and Mt. Hood was out in all her glory and I was super excited to hike on Sunday. 

Mt. Hood on the ridge by Wahtum Lake

We ended up getting up to the lake late afternoon and we drove around looking for Indian Springs, but never definitely found it. I had a green trails map but the logging roads were not named on either the map or signed on the road, so it was a bit of a guessing game.

We finally just decided to camp at Wahtum Lake. Oddly enough, you can't even see the lake where you camp, but there was a picnic table, fire ring and pit toilet, so we set up camp there. We decided to sleep in our cars rather than set up the tent. Then we realized we forgot the cook stove! Fortunately I had brought firewood, but now we would have to do all our cooking on the fire.

Kelley heats up water

Kelley's french toast. So yummy!

We were in bed by 7:30pm and I slept great until morning. Kelley was the first up and we got the fire going again. Kelley made French toast and eggs, and Tamera drove us to Lost Lake. It took us almost an hour to get there and we arrived at 10:00am.

Trail angel Tamera drops us at Lost Lake

It started to rain while we were driving but I wasn't too worried. The forecast I'd seen said drizzle in the morning, clearing by early afternoon. Kelley donned her DIY rain gear of black garbage bags, and I put one over my backpack as well. I put on my rain skirt and gators. My coat is Goretex so I figured I'd be fine. Little did I know!

DIY rain gear

Rain coat, rain skirt, gators

Lost Lake was closed for the season so we hiked an extra mile in from the gate, and then started around the lake. It was so nice to hike without our heavy backpacks, and I remembered how hot and miserable I'd been when we were here in July.

A rainy Lost Lake. Swans swim on the other side of the lake.

Soon we started up the hill to connect to the PCT. I had to stop and take off my fleece layer and Kelley also stripped off a layer. After a good hour, we finally arrived at the Pacific Crest Trail from the Huckleberry Trail from Lost Lake. We stopped to filter me some water at Salvation Creek. I had deliberately gone light on water, not wanting to haul a bunch of water up the mountain. It was still raining hard and the wind was gusting strongly up on the ridge. I just know there were some awesome views but we couldn't see them due to the low lying clouds and rain.

Wet, but we've made it to the PCT

By now it was noon and I realized that we had at least 9 more miles to go. We hiked as fast as we could but every time we went up hill we'd slow way down. We had both lost our altitude acclimatization we gained in July, and the wind and unrelenting rain were making everything more difficult. Kelley had brought 4 pairs of gloves but none of them were waterproof. She switched to her second pair of gloves and tried to activate a hand warmer. The problem with hand warmers is they don't work very well when they are wet.

We decided to just hike as fast as we could to try to get back to camp before dark. We hiked through forests, along exposed ridges and up and down mountainsides. At one point shortly before Indian Springs we were on a beautiful ridge and the clouds cleared enough for us to actually have a small view. The winds were so strong that we struggled to keep upright. Then the trail descended and we saw the picnic table that told us we were at Indian Springs.

Strong winds almost blew us over in this section

Best view of the day

I was soaked through from the nonstop rain and had put back on my fleece layer and my water proof ski mittens. We had to decide if we would try hiking the abandoned road or take the trail. Both would take us to Wahtum Lake. By now it was 4:00 and daylight was fading so we decided to take the road which was wider and would give us more light versus being on a dark, rooty trail. I took a glove off and fished around in my pocket until I found my head lamp. Soon we were walking by the light of my head lamp. Kelley was not sure where her light was in her backpack and although I looked in her pockets, I couldn't find it. Putting my mittens on and off was proving to be difficult and I couldn't find my spare headlamp, either. The wind was blowing and the rain was turning to sleet as we hiked the 3.5 miles of road back to camp. We were hoping Tamera would come looking for us, but she didn't know which route we were taking.

By now we were stumbling through the dark with only my headlamp. Fortunately I recognized the road we were on since we'd driven it the previous night looking for Indian Springs. Of course it was down the one little road we didn't drive down! Our original mileage estimate was based on camping at Indian Springs and camping at Wahtum Lake was an extra 3.5 miles I hadn't figured in. Kelley and I agreed that we were not up for the challenge of being dropped off at the bottom of Eagle Creek for a 15 mile a 3,000 foot elevation gain hike the next day back up to Wahtum Lake. 

Then Tamera saw us coming through the dark and turned on the car head lights to guide us in. We stripped off our wet clothes and cranked up the car heaters as we changed in to dry clothes and discussed options. Due to the poor weather we decided to drive down to Hood River and check in to the Comfort Suites for the night. We drove down the mountain in the dark and pounding rain and as soon as we got in cell phone range I got a phone call from my worried husband. The weather forecast had changed due to an arctic blast and freezing rain was expected in the Columbia Gorge the next day. We were happy with our decision to only hike the one day and to save the rest of the trail for better weather.

When I got home I re-figured the miles we hiked and realized that my original estimate of 12 miles was actually almost 16! No wonder we were so exhausted!